Google Content Network

February 17, 2008 on 11:08 pm | In Questions and Comments | 5 Comments

I’m looking at what seems an odd phenomenon and I hope someone can shed some light on it. One of my campaigns has roughly 67,000  impressions on the Google search network and 21,000 impressions on the content network. To me this seems reasonable. It seems intuitive to me that Google would show my ads more often on the search network. But here’s the oddity: I have another campaign with only 1300 impressions on the search network but 113,600 impressions on the content network! This has me confused. On the one hand, I’m wondering if I need to tweak something to get more impressions on searches. On the other hand, I’m getting loads of impressions on the content network and more total clicks there as well (although a smaller CTR). It should be noted I did not place a separate bid on the content network. I let that default to whatever Google defaulted it to.

I’m pretty sure the one commission I earned came from the content network. Should I lower my bids on my keywords so my CPC on the search network goes down? At this point, this campaign is barely breaking even so I’d like to reduce my costs without interfering with the likelihood of getting more sales.

Also, while I’m here, a quick questions about keywords. I had a case where Google ended up deactivating ALL my keywords, thereby basically pausing the ad for all intents and purposes. Should I take a knee jerk approach and raise my bids or sit tight hoping that keywords get reactivated after some time has passed?

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  1. Matty,

    The content network is quite divorced from the search netwrk in terms of volume. There might be a lot of people searching for recipes on the web, but here might be even more people visiting cooking websites that belong to the content network and would show your ad. More importantly, they may see your ad several times as they view different pages on the site, where a search ad is more likely to be seen just once by the same pair of eyeballs. It can go the other way sometimes, too. The point is, don’t ever expect the two to perform the same, in terms of volume, cost or conversion.  As for where the conversion came from, you’ll have to use seperate ads for content and search campaigns, with SIDs (or something similar to CJs SID) to track them seperately.  Search usually does better than content, but there are notable exceptions.

    As for deactivated keywords, Google calls them deactivated to get you to raise your bid, but most often they are just reduced showing. The real solution is to write a better performing ad. A higher CTR will lower the so-called minimum bid in a short time, so keep improving those ads.

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — February 20, 2008 #

  2. What would you say is an acceptable click through rate or is there no rule of thumb on this?

    Comment by mattycb — February 21, 2008 #

  3. Matty,

    Their is no rule of thumb for CTR. In most spaces, 15% would be a great CTR, but I have run ads against some searches which had CTRs over 50%. A 15% ctr would be pretty bad in those searches. Your CTR really only matters in relation to your competition’s CTR.

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — February 21, 2008 #

  4. Yikes! A 15% CTR would make me dance around the room. I’m not even hitting 1% on most of my campaigns.

    I have a funny feeling I’m just “risking” too little up front money to make this endeavor really roll. On most of my campaigns I’ve got a $150/month budget. Do you feel there is a bare minimum budget to be successful?

    Comment by mattycb — February 21, 2008 #

  5. No.

    Well…

    Don’t set it at $30 a month. That’s still not to low (mathmatically speaking) to make money, but the lower you go, the longer it’ll take to find winners, get traction, etc..

    You have to balance your patience and your bankroll. Increasing that budget will make things happen faster (good things and bad things). Wherever yur campaign is headed, the budget will only affect the speed with which it gets there. So, if you are losing patience, and can afford to risk a little more to identify winners and losers quicker, go ahead and raise that budget.

    If $150 is about the most you’d care to risk in a month on this, I think you’ll still find your winners and losers quick enough. And remember, when a campaign starts to look good, you’ll be able to raise the budget (slowly) with a lot more confidence.

    Tony

     P.S.  Never get to excited (or discouraged) about a high or low CTR.  Unless you know you’re competitions CTR, the figure is useless except for comparing your own ads to see which is better.  I’m sure a lot of people have run ads in the space I described earlier, gotten a 15% CTR, thrown a little party, and then wondered why they can’t get any more clicks, or why their costs are skyrocketing.  And I have had CTRs much much lower than that, that earned me thousands of dollars a month. 

    Comment by Administrator — February 21, 2008 #

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